54 POTATO CULTURE. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 The Potato-Planter. 



The writer felt pretty good after perfecting the imple- 

 ments described in last chapter for planting potatoes. He 

 could do good work, and fast. He could ride, and plow out 

 two rows at once, and make them very straight, and cover 

 two at a time, very perfectly, as fast as a team could walk. 

 He could get his potatoes down just as deep as he wanted 

 them, and still not tear up the sods as with a walking-plow. 

 When the manufacturer of the A spin wall planter came here 

 and tried to get me to use a planter, I did not feel like chang- 

 ing. He acknowledged that my machines were perfect, but 

 his would do as well, and drop seed at the same time, he 

 claimed. I was slow about desiring to try it, but finally did. 

 When I got on the seat and rode, while the machine marked 

 out a furrow, dropped the seed, and covered it, in a very 

 perfect manner, so far as I could see, and saved my paying 

 out any thing for help to drop, I felt that I had gone another 

 step ahead. I watched very carefully, and found the rows 

 could be made almost perfectly straight. The covering was 

 perfect. I followed the machine for miles, and watched its 

 dropping, and found that, if properly set, it would not miss 

 dropping a piece more than about once in 35 times, on the 

 average, which is better than some men will do. It dropped 

 two pieces rather often, however, thus wasting some seed. 

 If it was very high-priced, this would be an objection. The 

 machine has many advantages. It leaves the surface in nice 

 shape for harrowing down and killing weeds. It never gets 

 tired of dropping. The owner is quite independent of extra 

 help. He can set all hands to cutting seed, and rush in a 

 crop in catching weather. It does away with the hardest 

 job connected with planting. All these things I soon saw, 



